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PRAYER FOR TODAY
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Tuesday November 19 - Master money
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have... Hebrews 13:5
The Beatles nailed it in 1963 when they sang, “The best things in life are free”, yet lost it in the next stanza: “Give me money, that’s what I want”. Take a moment to think of the ‘best things’: love, faith, hope, peace, grace and especially salvation itself – they are all free!
God’s word encourages us to be content, yet our consumer-driven society spawns discontentment and its bedfellows: envy and greed. How we need to be reminded that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it’ (1 Timothy 6:6-7). Alexander the Great famously requested his hands to be left dangling out of his coffin, so people would know that he came into the world empty-handed and empty-handed he left.
The Bible makes it clear that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1 Timothy 6:10). Yes, we need money; in itself it is not evil, it’s what we do with it that matters. If our goal in life is to make money and acquire wealth, we are in danger of money becoming our God, and we fall into idolatry. PT Barnum said, “Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.” Jesus made this clear in his teaching: “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). The choice is ours!
Father, may I ‘learn the secret of being content in every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want’ (Philippians 4:12). Amen.
Wednesday November 20 - Strengthened by grace It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace... Hebrews 13:9
First-century Jewish believers were seeped in the theology of law-keeping; for them, before coming to faith in Christ, righteousness was only possible by obeying the Torah. Such legalism places the Law as the focus of attention, and the degree to which we obey it is the measure by which we gauge success and failure.
The Law reveals God’s standards and exposes sin, but also our inability to keep it perfectly. Now grace is quite different; grace reveals God’s unmerited favour and love, freely given and not earned or deserved. Jesus came ‘full of grace’ (John 1:14,16); grace’s full measure was revealed in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross – the sinless Lamb of God slain to redeem us from the penalty of sin. Jesus fulfilled the Law on our behalf, in order that we might share in his righteousness, a righteousness that far surpasses the Levitical law. This grace empowers us to live transformed lives out of gratitude for God.
Let’s take care not to slip into a ‘rules mentality’, never forgetting that ‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8). Therefore, our obedience should be motivated by extravagant love and not penal servitude. It’s a response that declares that we love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Heavenly Father, I thank you that I am no longer bound by the Law but live under your liberating grace. To you be all praise and glory. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY